Published February 1, 2020

A very dear friend and I headed out the Disney's Hollywood Studios a week ago to check out Galaxy's Edge. Definitely worth a visit, but wanted to give you some insight if you're planning to visit it. There's two rides found here: Smuggler's Run, in which you and a team of people are piloting the Millennium Falcon through space, and Rise of the Resistance, which is a whole ride experience from being abducted by the Imperial Army, and the Resistance breaking you out. We took the luxury of running off of 2-3 hours of sleep to get into the Rise of the Resistance.

When we arrived at the park at 5:15 am, there was already a crowd of people waiting in line. We jumped in, and so began our waiting journey. Keep in mind, this is in January, and the winter weather wasn't in full effect, but it was still a bit nippy (45 degrees, to be exact!) Thankfully, the crowd of people did help with the warmth!

Once the crowd starting getting larger and larger as the 6 o'clock hour was about to hit, Hollywood Studios opened its gates to let the queued crowd line up inside the park.

Most likely, this was to not have too large of crowds at the gates. 7:00 am was the official opening time, and about 15 minutes prior to start time, the announcement came on - "To join the queue for the Rise of the Resistance experience, please use the Disney World app to join the Boarding Group." So instead of waiting in a physical line, there was a virtual line you would join, and when you are to get on the ride, you get a notification when you're up, so you can lollygag around the park until your group is called.

We got into group 67, so we thought of one of two things: go back to the car and nap, or spend time around the park and absorb the ambiance known as Galaxy's Edge. Of course, we did the latter because we love to suffer, and checked out what else the attraction had to offer.

Smuggler's Run didn't appeal much to us (and also was an hour of physically waiting in line). Thankfully, we had a spot for Oga's Cantina at 8:30 am, which is a bar that you can only get in with a reservation. This place serves specially concocted Star Wars-themed drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). But who would want a non-alcoholic drink when you can get into a bar that early in the morning??

Although there was a 45-minute limit of staying in there, Oga's Cantina is definitely worth a visit because of all the unique drinks that can only be purchased there, and the cast members stay in character the whole time. They definitely make you feel like you're actually there!

We wandered around the park a little bit more, checking out the other lands (Toy Story Land, Tower of Terror), but since we knew that we were in queue for the Resistance ride, we elected not to go to on the other rides, and also we wanted a place to rest since we've been on our feet since 5:30 am.  We waited out in front of the ride until we were called, but it didn't take much longer as groups were getting boarded quickly *whew*!

The premise is that we are loaded on these ships that get abducted by the Imperial Army, but then we are broken free through the Resistance. The ride does not officially begin until the Resistance breaks you out of the Imperial base, but the whole experience lasts about 15-20 minutes, from boarding the drop shop, getting abducted, imprisoned by the Imperial Army, and finally, escaping. I didn't take many photos mainly because I was trying to absorb everything the ride had to offer, but it was definitely a fun ride. Not a "lose your sleep over" ride, but it is one of Disney's best rides currently!

Of course, why would I not take non-phone photos when we are at a unique location like this? I sort of...Forced (hehe) her into taking some photos during the end of the day. The crowds started to thin out, and the Millenium Falcon had few enough people that I could manage a clean shot.

This also leads to a photo-editing concept that I've been reading/working on, which is color-grading! Yes, I'm slow to the draw, but if you want to change the tone of a photo, go through the tool in Photoshop called Selective Coloring and work through the color tones to get a feel you would like. I wanted a darker/grungier feel since she dressed like a Sith, so I focused on changing the coloring on the blacks more to convey that grungy feel. Drag that slider to see the difference in mood!